Baker Stuarthttps://bakerstuart.com
Workplace strategy and transitionThu, 21 Mar 2019 10:00:45 +0000en-GBhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.10Are You Remotely Happy? 3 ways to engage remote workers in workplace wellbeing initiativeshttps://bakerstuart.com/remote-workers-wellbeing/
https://bakerstuart.com/remote-workers-wellbeing/#respondThu, 14 Feb 2019 16:00:33 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=2099A happy workplace makes a happy worker. Makes sense doesn’t it? Companies across the nation appear to believe so, as evidenced by the creation of new roles like ‘Chief Happiness Officers’ within corporations. This is just one way that we’re starting to see growing commitment to employee wellbeing. But with the rise of remote working (and with […]

]]>A happy workplace makes a happy worker. Makes sense doesn’t it? Companies across the nation appear to believe so, as evidenced by the creation of new roles like ‘Chief Happiness Officers’ within corporations. This is just one way that we’re starting to see growing commitment to employee wellbeing. But with the rise of remote working (and with the meteoric rise in freelance work and short term contracts) the question arises: how do we engage remote workers in company wellness initiatives?

Remote working: why now?

In today’s technological climate, working remotely has never made more sense. With Skype, a smartphone and a sturdy internet connection, anyone can access the resources needed to do their job. Recent findings paint an optimistic picture of this ‘workplace revolution’, with increased numbers of workers utilising tools like Dropbox and Google Drive to share work, and businesses reporting a ballooning employee use of Cloud applications which can be accessed anywhere.

Remote working also has obvious benefits in terms of reducing fixed costs (a serviced desk space in London can cost up to £18,000 per year – not a number for the faint-hearted) but also has a range of benefits which contribute to both employee wellbeing and the business bottom line. These range from less sick days, a reduced carbon footprint, and overall happier, more productive employees. In fact, the positive impact on employee morale has been cited as a reason why 43% of employees intend to work remotely over the coming year, according to a Regus survey published in May 2017. In short, workers can maximise productivity at home and remain easily contactable whilst forsaking the monotony of the daily commute – and this makes for happier employees.

Remote working, then, appears to already be contributing to the wellness push in the workplace through giving employees more flexibility and reducing stress. However, we have to remember that whilst remote workers also encounter a lot of the same issues as their office-based counterparts (e.g. email overload, extended periods of desk-based work), they also face a set of challenges that are unique. These include: the fact that mental ill health (burnout, stress, overwork) is harder to spot, communication and cohesion between colleagues is not as strong when only virtual, and the fact that remote working can result in a feeling of social isolation from colleagues or lack of belonging.

On top of this, one recent paper warns that “it is currently unclear whether individuals can access occupational health, human resources or training easily when working remotely and companies should be aware of this”. All of this can potentially be really bad news for employee wellbeing and the business bottom line. So… what can we do to facilitate remote workers’ engagement in wellbeing initiatives?

Technology: making everything available to everyone

Remote workers will obviously miss out on on-site fitness classes, or the provision of free healthy breakfasts, but given that we have such a wealth of technology at our fingertips, this need not be the case. Though we can’t beam offsite employees their free fruit (we have a little way to go in terms of that technology yet) we should, in principle, try to make whatever is available at the office available away from the office. If there are onsite talks, or guest speakers for lunchtime lectures (‘lunch n’ learns’), make sure these are recorded or videoed so that they are available to off-site workers. Webinars and live feeds are a gift: use them!

Digital programmes, apps, or wearable tech are also a huge area of focus for wellness, off- and on-site. The most successful of these involve some kind of social aspect which makes wellness a collective activity. Step Jockey, for example, is an app-based programme which encourages workers to use the stairs rather than taking the lift, and creates a virtual leaderboard. This initiative creates a sense of friendly competition – and it also means that regardless of an employee’s location, they can still compete by using stairs outside of the office!

Consult your workers

This sounds obvious, but it’s shocking how often this is overlooked. Ask your workforce what they would find helpful, and take this into account when developing an overall wellness strategy. In particular, make sure that your remote workers are represented and catered for in your strategy. This in itself is the most important component of boosting remote workers’ engagement with wellbeing schemes.

One practical way to facilitate this discussion is to form an employee-lead health and wellbeing committee, which can help to relay concerns from workers to management, as well as offering suggestions on how wellbeing needs can be met. This should also foster positive relationships throughout the management chain, and lead to higher levels of wellbeing, better engagement and stronger feelings of belonging and loyalty: all good news for the bottom line.

Train your managers to facilitate wellbeing remotely

Corporations must foster a culture that values wellbeing. This sounds simple enough, but in practice can require a shift in terms of company mindset. Strengthening the social element of wellness is useful, but there also needs to be adequate training for managers so that they can structurally support this. In other words, as well as facilitating on-site wellness activities, managers need to be trained in the specific physical and emotional issues around remote working, and be aware of the different wellbeing requirements of this section of the workforce, because it’s not just an issue of physical proximity to the office – and out of sight must not mean out of mind.

Baker Stuart’s own PeopleLOOK tool is one way for managers to get a sense of how their staff are doing in terms of wellbeing, and how engaged they are with wellness initiatives. PeopleLOOK is an International Well Building Institute-approved assessment tool for use in the WELL Building standard, and tools like these are a vital source of data which can be instrumental in shaping suitable wellness initiatives for all employees.

Some final thoughts…

Jeffrey Pfeffer’s book ‘Dying for a Paycheck’ argues that white collar office jobs have become so stressful they can be as unhealthy as manual labour. He writes that the underlying cause of a lot of workplace stress is bad management, and its easy to find evidence of this. At its worst, you only need to think of the ongoing legal case involving France Telecom, where they are facing the accusation that they deliberately made bad management choices which intentionally caused severe stress for employees. Although this is a very extreme example, it does highlight the importance of, firstly, a positive and supportive work environment; and, secondly, good management. A huge indicator of the success of both of these elements is employee wellbeing, which is partly why it has become such a key metric for businesses now.

Only when the benefits wellness initiatives are fully extended to the ever-growing proportion of remote workers will wellbeing initiatives have the wide-reaching impacts that they need to have – and this means including remote workers in existing initiatives as well as developing wellness programmes that take into account the specific challenges faced by remote workers. Because whilst Skype meetings, virtual training and online resources are cornerstones in any worker’s ability to perform well in the current technological climate, the social benefits of being physically near co-workers cannot be underestimated: especially if you’re getting on-site yoga classes, or enjoying ‘Tequila Thursdays’. Especially the latter.

About Baker Stuart
We are an independent specialist consultancy providing a comprehensive range of innovative workplace strategy, workplace management and change, project and programme management services. Thinking about optimising your organisation? Get in touch with us here.

This work by BakerStuart Limited is copyright and is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of the license, click here. For all referenced material you must comply with individual copyright terms of the originators

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/remote-workers-wellbeing/feed/0The Great British Hangover: the business cost of boozehttps://bakerstuart.com/the-great-british-hangover/
https://bakerstuart.com/the-great-british-hangover/#respondTue, 03 Jul 2018 09:00:58 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=2053With the Football World Cup in full swing, and up to half a million Brits already going into work with a hangover on any given day, what does this mean for the workplace? The pounding headache, the overwhelming nausea, the light-sensitivity and the bleary-eyed commute. The Great British Hangover seems to be a staple of […]

]]>With the Football World Cup in full swing, and up to half a million Brits already going into work with a hangover on any given day, what does this mean for the workplace?

The pounding headache, the overwhelming nausea, the light-sensitivity and the bleary-eyed commute. The Great British Hangover seems to be a staple of British culture, a rite of passage in which we all prove ourselves at one time or another. This is part of a long tradition of workplace boozing – from the halcyon days of liquid-lunches in London’s taverns, to Manhattan’s endless whisky tinted-meetings in the 1960s (as shown in hit show Mad Men) – it’s clear that alcohol has a longstanding relationship with workplaces.

With the Football World Cup in full swing, the World Economic Forum has even run studies on which cities are most likely to have productivity losses due to the sporting tournament, from absenteeism and – you guessed it – hangovers and lunchtime drinking. But, are our drinking days numbered? Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics show the proportion of adults who say they drink alcohol is the lowest on record. The rise of vegetarianism, veganism, fitness and teetotalism are all firmly at odds with our penchant for pints. So is our love-affair with boozing on the wane – is the bottle about to run dry?

A key harbinger of this changing attitude to drinking and work came in 2017, when Lloyds of London implemented a total ban on lunchtime drinking. This was partly welcomed, but mainly met with outrage by the staff. Many claimed that business would suffer – business meetings, friendships and discussions depended on this lunchtime tradition. Was this a progressive move for public health, or a worrying sign of a burgeoning puritanical paternalism?

What’s the problem?NHS stats found that “those in managerial or professional jobs are more likely to drink five days a week or more and drink more heavily in a single session than those in intermediate or manual jobs”. This is partly down to an ingrained culture of boozing in the city, but might come as a surprise to some. However, with desk-based work, it’s easier to look like you’re functioning, than it is if your job is operating heavy machinery. And let’s face it: heart surgeons really can’t go to work hungover.

But some public figures, including Boris Johnson, have said that they are partial to a bit of lunchtime boozing. He says that Churchill swigged whisky for breakfast, did a full day of parliamentary duties, gorged on a vast dinner washed down with cognac and claret, and then wrote a full chapter of his latest literary endeavour, so (he says) it naturally followsthat ‘getting on the juice’ gets the creative juices flowing.

Obviously this is not always the case. From a business point of view (without even going into the health statistics) the bottom line is that hangovers and lunchtime drinking tend – generally – to result in a loss of productivity. If you have a liquid lunch, you won’t be able to make the same decisions at 4pm as you could at 10am, and a lack of judgement is not good for business when you need to make well-informed, rational choices. Equally, staff report having problems keeping on top of their workload when they’ve had one too many the night before: one in five admit to making mistakes, and 7% say they’ve had to go home early due to the resulting ‘illness’.

In a 2018 parliament research briefing, a key line of argument in raising the minimum alcohol price per unit was that alcohol consumption, through both absenteeism and presenteeism (either not turning up, or turning up but not really working – well or at all) causes losses in productivity to the tune of about £7.3bn per year in the UK. And it’s hard to argue with that.

Are Our Workplaces Making Us Drink?48 per cent of employers believe their staff would never come in late because of binge drinking – an unlikely scenario, given that in the UK alone there are 200,000 hungover workers on any given day. That, in fact, is one of the more conservative estimates, with some studies arguing that there are around half a million hangovers in the workforce daily.

Rather than demonising workers for drinking, perhaps employers need to look at their management styles and policies. In 2016, a government-commissioned independent review into the impacts of drugs and alcohol on employment found that the workplace itself can be a factor in encouraging increased levels of alcohol consumption. Key drivers were: long working hours, monotonous work, tight deadlines and job insecurity. In short, stressful working conditions induce people to drink more. Similarly, dull working conditions and boring work tasks make people want to drink, and these are all problems for managers.

Binge Drinking is For Teenagers, Right?Not so. The same NHS study found that men and women aged 45 to 64 are more likely to binge drink than anyother age group across the whole population. However, it seems that this age group limit their drinking to weekends, as almost 1 in 5 workers aged 18 to 25 admit to coming in with a hangover at least once a month – more than any other age group.

However, Dr Tony Rao, co-chairman of the older people’s substance misuse working group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists says: “It’s very concerning that while the rest of the population, including younger people, reduces its alcohol intake, baby boomers are drinking at a similar rate as before – and exceeding recommended guidelines”. But, if Baby Boomers are saving this for the weekend, then is it really a business problem?

What’s next for the Great British Hangover?One of the biggest problems in working out where we stand on this issue, is that there seems to be a huge double standard. 89% of people think it’s unacceptable to go into work hungover, and yet two thirds of workers report having a laugh about it with their boss or colleagues. So will Brits continue to blearily stumble down the path towards binge drinking – regardless of the damaging effect on our productivity at our work, our long term health and our bank balances?

Well, it seems that we’re not ready to let go just yet. And, realistically, there will always be a place in our hearts for a well-timed pint. Whilst we love our booze, we know – because we’ve reported it ourselves in surveys – that we’re worse at our jobs, and less productive when we’re hungover. It also goes without saying that companies cannot babysit their staff, so much of the answer lies in personal choice. Despite the beginnings of a huge cultural shift favouring wellness over wine, with the World Cup and scorching summer weather sending everyone into a thirsty frenzy, this summer looks to be a boozy one. If so, it might be best to accept our bleary-eyed colleagues and just ensure there’s enough coffee in the office to get through the morning after the match day.

This work by BakerStuart Limited is copyright and is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of the license, click here. For all referenced material you must comply with individual copyright terms of the originators.

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/the-great-british-hangover/feed/0All Present – but Correct? A new White Paper on Presenteeismhttps://bakerstuart.com/presenteeism-white-paper/
https://bakerstuart.com/presenteeism-white-paper/#respondThu, 28 Jul 2016 11:33:46 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1797Companies sink or swim based on their leaders, and good leadership in a company can be felt throughout the entire organisation. With the cost of losing an employee often being in excess of the annual salary of that worker, losing employees is a cost that organisations can scarcely afford. In contrast to this, the result of a good […]

]]>Companies sink or swim based on their leaders, and good leadership in a company can be felt throughout the entire organisation. With the cost of losing an employee often being in excess of the annual salary of that worker, losing employees is a cost that organisations can scarcely afford. In contrast to this, the result of a good corporate culture is high morale, employee retention and long-term, sustainable success. So why do so many managers get culture wrong?

Today we launch a new white paper called ‘All Present – But Correct?’. In this paper Jessica Andrews looks at two contrasting workplace cultures: presenteeism and results-orientated working, and considers how to cultivate a culture which benefits employees and the bottom line simultaneously.

Download the Presenteeism White Paper

We’re delighted to offer this new white paper for free to our blog subscribers – just subscribe to the blog using the form below and we’ll send you a link to download it.

Already a blog subscriber? Just contact us for a copy, or click the link to download our white papers you’ll find at the bottom any of your subscriber emails. If you’re reading this blog post in an email, scroll down and you’ll see the link.

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/presenteeism-white-paper/feed/0Baker Stuart powered by Condeco – Facilities Show 2016https://bakerstuart.com/fm-show/
https://bakerstuart.com/fm-show/#respondTue, 24 May 2016 08:59:16 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1743Baker Stuart are proud to announce they are exhibiting at the Facilities Show 2016 in partnership with Condeco. The Facilities Show is one of the biggest events in our industry, providing informative seminars, case studies and panel debates around the broad topics of facilities management. Last year the show welcomed over 11,000 facilities management professionals […]

]]>Baker Stuart are proud to announce they are exhibiting at the Facilities Show 2016 in partnership with Condeco.

The Facilities Show is one of the biggest events in our industry, providing informative seminars, case studies and panel debates around the broad topics of facilities management. Last year the show welcomed over 11,000 facilities management professionals to ExCeL London. Professionals from all across the FM industry come from far and wide to attend the show, from sectors including office management, media and IT. If you have yet to register to attend the show, click here to find out more and how to sign up.

Baker Stuart are delighted to be hosting a stand at this year’s show with our partners Condeco Software. Condeco pioneer workspace management technology for some of the world’s most competitive organisations. This combined with Baker Stuart’s workplace consultancy helps to automate and better manage the changing workplace, which results in significant improvements in workplace effectiveness and utilisation and subsequent benefits to the organisation and individuals.

Whether the reason for change is new processes, improvement in collaboration or cost savings, utilisation and satisfaction data is key to designing an effective, scalable and achievable workplace strategy. Click here to find out more about how Condeco can help your organisation.

We will also be showcasing some of Baker Stuart’s most innovative and exciting services and are announcing the launch of our new SnapLOOK product. You can find out more about SnapLOOK here. We will also be giving one lucky winner a free SnapLOOK workplace study, so make sure to come down to stand U1210 to see us. We will be available for one to one meetings throughout the show to discuss how we can help you, if you are interested in speaking with Baker Stuart or Condeco at the show please book your slot by emailing Jessica Andrews with your preferred date and time.

We look forward to seeing you at the show, if you have any questions please contact Jackie Furey at j.furey@bakerstuart.com or on 07734 865653.

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/fm-show/feed/0Sound Advice – A new White Paper on Office Noisehttps://bakerstuart.com/sound-advice-new-white-paper-office-noise/
https://bakerstuart.com/sound-advice-new-white-paper-office-noise/#commentsWed, 18 May 2016 10:17:41 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1709Office noise can be worse than it sounds. From the piercing cry of a small baby to the distant rumble of thunder over the hills, sound is notorious in its ability to provoke a range of physical, physiological and psychological responses in humans. Whilst it’s unlikely that your average office worker is going to be […]

]]>Office noise can be worse than it sounds. From the piercing cry of a small baby to the distant rumble of thunder over the hills, sound is notorious in its ability to provoke a range of physical, physiological and psychological responses in humans. Whilst it’s unlikely that your average office worker is going to be faced with the shrieks of a new born in the workplace, many other forms of noise are ever present in the modern day office and the problems associated with noise should not be ignored or underestimated.

Today we launch a new white paper called ‘Sound Advice’. In this paper Jessica Andrews looks at how office noise :

Office Noise Hampers Productivity

The Problem with the Open Plan Office

The Impacts of Office Noise

Noise and Personality Types

Headphones in the Office, and

Possible Solutions to Office Noise.

Download the Office Noise White Paper

We’re delighted to offer this new white paper for free to our blog subscribers – just subscribe to the blog using the form below and we’ll send you a link to download it.

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/sound-advice-new-white-paper-office-noise/feed/1Avoiding the Pitfalls of Relocating a Businesshttps://bakerstuart.com/avoiding-pitfalls-relocating-business/
https://bakerstuart.com/avoiding-pitfalls-relocating-business/#respondTue, 19 Apr 2016 08:45:27 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1620Baker Stuart’s own Jackie Furey provides PFM readers with her thoughts on best practice when relocating… “If poorly executed, a business relocation can be the most unproductive and stressful time a workforce will experience. Moving all members of staff, reconfiguring equipment, assembling furniture and moving all company goods with zero impact on productivity, may at […]

Baker Stuart’s own Jackie Furey provides PFM readers with her thoughts on best practice when relocating…

“If poorly executed, a business relocation can be the most unproductive and stressful time a workforce will experience. Moving all members of staff, reconfiguring equipment, assembling furniture and moving all company goods with zero impact on productivity, may at first glance seem like an impossible task, but with the right strategic planning, the most common mistakes can be easily avoided.”

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/avoiding-pitfalls-relocating-business/feed/0Stressed Out – A new White Paper on Workplace Stresshttps://bakerstuart.com/stressed-new-white-paper-workplace-stress/
https://bakerstuart.com/stressed-new-white-paper-workplace-stress/#respondWed, 13 Apr 2016 08:16:31 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1607Workplace Stress. An unemployed graduate is plagued by eczema. A bereaved woman suffers a heart attack. A divorced man develops high blood pressure. Are these circumstances linked… or mere coincidences? Stress is an ever-present influence on our health and well-being, therefore awareness of its impact is critical. The UK Chief Medical Officer raised concerns in […]

]]>Workplace Stress. An unemployed graduate is plagued by eczema. A bereaved woman suffers a heart attack. A divorced man develops high blood pressure. Are these circumstances linked… or mere coincidences? Stress is an ever-present influence on our health and well-being, therefore awareness of its impact is critical. The UK Chief Medical Officer raised concerns in a report in 2014 stating that the 70 million working days that are lost each year in the UK due to mental illness – of which stress was a significant portion. This came at a £70 to £100 billion cost to the economy.

Today we launch a new white paper called ‘Stressed Out’. In this paper Jessica Andrews looks at how workplace stress leads to physical illness, and how that can be managed:

The Impacts of Stress

How Employees can combat workplace stress

How Management can combat stress

How Organisations can assist.

Download the White Paper

We’re delighted to offer this new white paper for free to our blog subscribers – just subscribe to the blog using the form below and we’ll send you a link to download it.

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/stressed-new-white-paper-workplace-stress/feed/0Are sit-stand desks the solution to back pain at work?https://bakerstuart.com/are-sit-stand-desks-the-solution-to-back-pain-at-work/
https://bakerstuart.com/are-sit-stand-desks-the-solution-to-back-pain-at-work/#commentsWed, 06 Apr 2016 10:23:29 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1491Sit-stand desks have been hailed as the answer to back and neck pain at work, but what is the evidence that they are effective? This article from Personnel Today explores the hotly contested topic of sit stand, with comments from Colin Stuart on the matter. “You don’t need a fancy desk to get your people to move about more, nor do you need any diktats from H […]

]]>Sit-stand desks have been hailed as the answer to back and neck pain at work, but what is the evidence that they are effective? This article from Personnel Today explores the hotly contested topic of sit stand, with comments from Colin Stuart on the matter.

“You don’t need a fancy desk to get your people to move about more, nor do you need any diktats from H
Q telling them off for sitting and building up staff resentment as a result. Employers should be looking at simple and inexpensive adjustments to office design, not great heavy pieces of kit, which in some cases are too big and expensive to be a practical solution.

By encouraging telephone conversations or video conferences to take place on foot, by offering sit stand desks, breakout spaces, privacy pods and quiet zones, workers will automatically move, stand and be more active without having to be told.”

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/are-sit-stand-desks-the-solution-to-back-pain-at-work/feed/1Changing Spaces – Public Sector Buildinghttps://bakerstuart.com/changing-spaces/
https://bakerstuart.com/changing-spaces/#respondWed, 23 Mar 2016 08:55:46 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1477Many public sector workplaces are in need of improvement, but how can critical change to these working environments be made on a shoestring budget? Colin Stuart discusses workplace improvement – without colossal costs… “The key to improving the workplace on a budget lies foremost in understanding your current space, identifying ways of making savings, considering […]

]]>Many public sector workplaces are in need of improvement, but how can critical change to these working environments be made on a shoestring budget? Colin Stuart discusses workplace improvement – without colossal costs…

“The key to improving the workplace on a budget lies foremost in understanding your current space, identifying ways of making savings, considering the benefits you want to achieve and planning these in accordance to the budget you have available”.

]]>https://bakerstuart.com/changing-spaces/feed/0I Quit! – A new White Paper on Staff Attritionhttps://bakerstuart.com/quit-new-white-paper-staff-attrition/
https://bakerstuart.com/quit-new-white-paper-staff-attrition/#respondFri, 04 Mar 2016 09:03:52 +0000https://bakerstuart.com/?p=1439Whether a company sells, invents or builds, all businesses share one universal similarity: an organisation can’t move forward without people. With the total cost of an employee leaving in excess of the employee’s annual salary, retaining staff and moving forward in harmony means the difference between flourishing and dying for any organisation looking to prosper in […]

]]>Whether a company sells, invents or builds, all businesses share one universal similarity: an organisation can’t move forward without people. With the total cost of an employee leaving in excess of the employee’s annual salary, retaining staff and moving forward in harmony means the difference between flourishing and dying for any organisation looking to prosper in this economic world. The cost of attrition is phenomenal and despite research into the area, it is still one of the biggest challenges faced by organisations.

Today we launch a new white paper called ‘I Quit! Costs, Causes and How to Combat Attrition’. In this paper Jessica Andrews looks at

How the costs of attrition can be calculated,

The causes of staff attrition, and

How good office design can reduce attrition.

Download the White Paper

We’re delighted to offer this new white paper for free to our blog subscribers – just subscribe to the blog using the form below and we’ll send you a link to download it.